Tourists flee attack on luxury resort in India

Tourists were forced to run for their lives when an axe-wielding mob attacked
one of the world's most luxurious spa resorts in India.

By Dean Nelson in New Delhi

5:42PM BST 25 Aug 2009

The holidaymakers fled when angry villagers stormed the resort hunting for gangsters they claimed had conned them into selling land cheaply.

British airline pilot Captain Mark Faulkner, was having a drink with friends when the mob burst into the clubhouse of the Vedic Village resort, on the outskirts of Calcutta.

“There was an explosion and a mob of 200 villagers with sickles, sticks stormed the resort. One of them had a gun. It was a full blown riot. A group of around 15 saw me and chased me. While I was hiding in the bathroom, an American friend phoned me and said they were torching the place.

“The British High commission managed to send a car for us, but there were too many of us to fit in. I drove a friend’s car and we were surrounded. I had to drive at the mob to get away. When I went back the next day to look at the damage, they had wrecked 40 houses in one of the resort streets,” he said.

Some of the villagers were carrying torches and used them to set fire to thatched roofs in the resort.

"It was red hot and I thought it was just the heat, until I heard voices shouting 'Fire! Fire!' I was scared," said Mr Faulkner. "I ran out through the kitchen where some more men started to chase me, but I managed to escape."

Vedic Village charges up to £150 per night for its lakeside cottages and "eco-houses" which offer a range of treatments including oil massages and rose petal baths, and specializes in making Indian brides look "wholesome, healthy and relaxed" for their big day.

Vedic Village has been at the centre of a dispute between villagers who say they were conned into selling their land to the company at below market prices.

Similar disputes are becoming increasingly common in West Bengal where the Communist-led state government has used strong-arm tactics to persuade villagers to sell their land to international investors and multinationals for development projects. They have been accused of using gangsters to intimidate villagers into selling.

Tensions between the resort and villagers earlier boiled over at a football match between a Vedic Village team and a local side which included several villagers. Violence between rival supporters flared after a disputed penalty and a player was killed in the fighting.

An executive of the resort, MJ Robertson, sought to play down the incident and said it had nothing to with the resort, which had emerged largely unscathed.

He dismissed claims that the violence was linked to a mafia which had paid villagers below the going rate.

"It has nothing to do with the resort, it was a local thing, a mob," he said.

He said the incident related to a local gangster who had no connections to Vedic Village.

Mr Faulkner said: "I don't know whether I want to continue staying at Vedic Village. I was here because it was a resort, but after what happened on Sunday, it is not one anymore."